Coordinates: 24°N 103°W

Mexican Plateau
The Central Mexican Plateau, also known as the Mexican
Altiplano (Spanish: Altiplanicie Mexicana), is a large arid-to- Mexican Plateau
semiarid plateau that occupies much of northern and central Altiplanicie Mexicana
Mexico. Averaging 1,825 m (5,988 ft) above sea level, it
extends from the United States border in the north to the Region
Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt in the south, and is bounded by
the Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre Oriental to the
west and east, respectively.

A low east-west mountain range in the state of Zacatecas

divides the plateau into northern and southern sections. These
two sections, called the Northern Plateau (Mesa del Norte)
and Central Plateau (Mesa Central), are now generally
regarded by geographers as sections of one plateau.

The Mexican Plateau is mostly covered by deserts and xeric A view of the Mexican Plateau near
shrublands, with pine-oak forests covering the surrounding San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato
mountain ranges and forming sky islands on some of the
interior ranges. The Mexican Altiplano is one of six distinct
physiographic sections of the Basin and Range Province,
which in turn is part of the Intermontane Plateaus
physiographic division.

In phytogeography, the Sonoran Desert is within the Sonoran

Floristic Province of the Madrean Region in southwestern
North America, part of the Holarctic Kingdom of the northern
Western Hemisphere.
Geographic map of the highest
While the plateau stretches from north to south, the southern Mountain Ranges of Mexico.
east-west arc of the Central Mexican Plateau from Jalisco to Coordinates: 24°N 103°W
Veracruz states historically as well as today has served as the Country Mexico
population nexus of the Mexican nation, it is home to its State Chihuahua
biggest metro areas of Guadalajara, Leon, Querétaro, Morelia,
Area
Mexico City, Toluca, Cuernavaca, and Puebla.
• Total 601,882 km2
(232,388 sq mi)
Geography Population (2000 [1])
• Total 74,900,000
The Mesa del Norte or northern plateau averages 1,100 metres • Density 120/km2 (320/sq mi)
(3,600 ft) in elevation above mean sea level and extends south
from the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte) through the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas
and San Luis Potosí. Various narrow, isolated ridges cross the Mesa del Norte and numerous depressions
also dot the region, the largest of which is the Bolsón de Mapimí. The Río Bravo del Norte and its tributary,
the Río Conchos, drain portions of the northern plateau, and the Río Pánuco and its tributaries drain the
southeastern corner. Both drain to the Gulf of Mexico. Much of the northern plateau comprises internal
drainage basins that do not drain to the sea. The Chihuahuan Desert extends across the northern portion of
the northern plateau, while the Meseta Central matorral covers the central portion, and the Central Mexican
matorral extends from the southern portion of the northern plateau across the southern plateau.
 The Mesa Central or southern plateau is higher than its northern
counterpart, averaging 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in elevation. The southern
plateau contains numerous valleys originally formed by ancient lakes.
It extends across the states of Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Zacatecas,
Guanajuato, Querétaro, Michoacán. Several of Mexico's most
prominent cities, including Guadalajara, are located in the valleys of
the southern plateau. Much of the southern plateau is drained by the
Río Grande de Santiago and its tributaries, including the Río Lerma,
Mesa del Norte is part of the which drain west into the Pacific Ocean. Tributaries of the Río
extreme northern part of the Pánuco drain the eastern portion of the southern plateau. The Central
Mexican Plateau.
Mexican matorral covers much of the southern plateau, with the
subtropical Bajío dry forests occupying the lower portions of the
Lerma–Río Grande de Santiago basin. Higher altitudes are covered
by Mixed Forests, then Temperate Coniferous Forests, up to the snow line in the top of the volcanoes that
surround the southern and western edges.

References
1. Regiones mexicanas (http://html.rincondelvago.com/regiones-mexicanas.html)

This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country
Studies website http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/).
Ricketts, Taylor H., Eric Dinerstein, David M. Olson, Colby J. Loucks, et al. (1999). Terrestrial
Ecoregions of North America: a Conservation Assessment. Island Press, Washington DC.

External links
Mexican Plateau, Mexico City Region (https://web.archive.org/web/20070802131044/http://e
arth.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/EFS/photoinfo.pl?PHOTO=STS61C-32-2). Image Science and
Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. 18 Mar. 2005. Earth from Space - Image
Information.

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